Kid Cudi has quite the puzzled look on his face (ha!) on the cover of Complex Magazine‘s upcoming October/November 2011 issue.

Inside the magazine, the G.O.O.D Music rapper talks about how he turned his life around, mainly by sobering up and creating music without the influence of marijuana. He also talked about love and his on-and-off girlfriend (they’re back together now), his future in acting and how hanging out with Kanye West was therapeutic for him.

Read a few excerpts below:

On spending time with Kanye West in New York:
I was at another place, another dark place. Me and my girl had broken up. I wasn’t fully healed yet. And being around Kanye and music was my escape. He’s a sober guy, he has a drink every once in a while, but seeing how he throws himself into the studio when he’s stressing about something, I totally admire that. Being around that was therapy for me.

On getting back with his girlfriend:
Yeah, we’re solid. I’m just trying to figure out love. I never was really good a it, but when you have someone who loves you so much and can take your good and your bad, and work with you and help you grow—that’s priceless. To have a ride-or-die woman, for somebody that’s in the position I’m in, that’s a once-in-a-lifetime thing.

On why he disappeared after releasing his last album:
I wanted to clear my head, besides detox. I had to look at the root of the whole problem, and that was work and the business. I wasn’t trying to hear it from nobody. I’m not even going to attack the people in my life that didn’t step in and try to stop it, ’cause I was just so bullheaded. There’s no way to slow somebody when they’re speeding down a path of destruction.

I thought I was dealing with it in the proper way. I was in the moment. And when you’re that young, with that opportunity, all that money, and all that respect and power, sometimes you run with it. ’Cause I was like, “Man, you don’t know if this shit’s gon’ be here tomorrow.”

On quitting weed & controlling his liquor:
Like, party a bit? It was easy for me to quit smoking weed because I stopped liking the way it made me feel. I didn’t like being one foot in, one foot out of reality. I could be blitzed out of my skull and somebody might be plotting to snuff me in the club. I can still sip my whiskey but I control my intake of liquor. I just don’t like the way it makes me feel [to be out-of-control drunk]. Especially in this business where you’ve got to watch the snakes in the grass. I really like being more alert.

I go out every once in a while. Not as much as I used to. Particularly in L.A., it’s tough because of the paparazzi. Even though it’s not going to happen, they’re waiting to see me f*cking stumble out of a club again.

[Necole Bitchie via Complex Magazine]

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